Students from nine area high schools gathered at Highland Community College (HCC) Tuesday for the 14th Annual Tech Trek competition.

As part of the competition, each team is given a project concept and they must design, manufacture and market an idea all within a three-hour time limit.

“The event promotes teamwork, brainstorming and creativity,” said Cindy Good, advisor to the Durand team. “We try to bring a technical writer, public speakers and kids that are good with building design. It’s usually a very fun day. I have yet to have a kid say that they don’t want to come back.”

Student advisors are on hand for each school to keep kids on track but they don’t assist at all with the project, said Jen Newendyke, system director for CareerTEC at HCC.

“We give them the scenario in the morning,” Newendyke said. “We give them the materials and it is up to them to come up with their project.”

The theme for this year’s competition was a “mobile training center” in which students were given the criteria that it must be portable, available to all ages and sustainable. Each school was then scored by experts and professionals on the three categories, which were manufacturing-build design, technical writing, and components and presentation.

“The point is for students to be creative and innovative,” Newendyke said.

Sarah Nadig, a senior at Dakota High School who will be attending UW-Platteville in the fall, said that her team came up with the idea of a phone App for their “mobile training center.”

“We tried to think outside of the box for our project,” Nadig said. “An App teaches any subject that you want. This is my first year participating and I love it. It’s fun and you can be creative. I would recommend it to anyone going into any field that needs creativity.”

Along with Durand and Dakota, other participants in Tech Trek included East Dubuque, Galena, Freeport, Scales Mound, Stockton, Warren and West Carroll. Dakota was the overall winner with West Carroll second and Warren third.

While each school being given a box of supplies, students were also allowed to bring their own technology such as laptops and printers to use for their projects. Rules were strict in regards to time constraints and errors or complications in using technology had the potential to cost teams points.

“We want students who wouldn’t normally stand out to have the opportunity to shine,” Newendyke said.

Scott Anderson, dean of Business and Technology at HCC, said that the event is important for students to build their written, verbal and technical skills before going out into the job market.

“It’s a diverse group,” Anderson said. “It’s a combined effort between Highland and the participating schools that helps the students to design, build, create instructions and make a prototype. It’s team building while also being creative and challenging yourself under a timeline.”